The writer has attempted in this volume to take up a few of the mostcharacteristic points in Jewish doctrine and practice, and to explainsome of the various phases through which they have passed, since thefirst centuries of the Christian era.

The presentation is probably much less detached than is the casewith other volumes in this series. But the difference was scarcelyavoidable. The writer was not expounding a religious system which hasno relation to his own life. On the contrary, the writer is himself aJew, and thus is deeply concerned personally in the matters discussedin the book.

The reader must be warned to keep this fact in mind throughout. On the onehand, the book must suffer a loss of objectivity; but, on the other hand,there may be some compensating gain of intensity. The author trusts,at all events, that, though he has not written with indifference, hehas escaped the pitfall of undue partiality.